Controversial Photographer Terry Richardson Shot 17-Year-Old Kylie Jenner
Kylie Jenner on the cover of Galore’s October issue.
According to Kylie Jenner, she’s the Peter Pan of the social media era: she really didn’t — and still doesn’t — want to grow up. “The reality is that I don’t even want to be 18. I wish I could be 17 for the rest of my life,” she told Galore magazine just before she reached that particular milestone in August. “I don’t want to get any older. I just want to be young and enjoy it, but this lifestyle absolutely made me grow up faster.” Not that she looks unwilling. The reality star sat for controversial photographer Terry Richardson—before she was an adult.
Wearing Balmain and Moschino in a cover story titled “Kylie Jenner is All Grown Up: The Face of Generation Bombshell,” the Snapchat savant bared quite a bit for Richardson, who might be famous for capturing Kate Upton’s “Cat Daddy” dance and shooting a slew of celebrities from Kylie’s sister Kim Kardashian and Miley Cyrus to Jennifer Aniston and Pharrell Williams, but is notorious for the even longer list of sexual abuse allegations that have been levied against him for years.
In 2010, Danish model Rie Rasmussen confronted Richardson in Paris, accusing him of taking advantage of young women because of his position of power in the fashion industry. Jamie Peck wrote an essay for The Gloss describing how he was shooting her while she was menstruating and he asked to make “tampon tea.” In years since, many more women have come forward to tell their stories and Vogue, W, and T Magazine vowed to never work with him.
In his own defense, Richardson told The Guardian, “I don’t like to exploit anybody. That’s not my bag. Everyone has fun on my shoots.” Despite the scandal, Richardson’s work hasn’t slowed. In 2015 alone, he shot Candice Swanepoel for Harper’s Bazaar in August; Miranda Kerr for Harper’s Bazaar Australia in February; Nicki Minaj for Rolling Stone; Gisele Bündchen for W Korea; and more. As BuzzFeed declared in January “it’s not just a comeback — it’s a statement.”
Like most photographers at this point, Richardson, colloquially known as “Uncle Terry,” has worked with the Kardashian family before. He most recently shot Kim for the cover of Rolling Stone and has worked with the Kardashian Kollection in the past, including their makeup like Lipsy.
But does that connection make it OK for an alleged predator to photograph a half-naked minor? “It just makes no sense that, even a month ago, people were complaining that I was too young to be doing certain things, and now people are just okay with it because I’m grown,” Jenner told Galore. “I don’t know why that one day made such a difference, but it really does change things for people.”
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